Elyria
Thorncrest Hall
Present Day
Aradia sips her coffee and returns the wide-brimmed china cup precisely to the center of its saucer before making the kind of honest statement that most people would erroneously call self-deprecating.
"I've heard it said among what appears to be some of the more intelligent mortals, that the lesser ones have been known to provide great entertainment for the gods with all of their foolishness. For me to laugh at those lesser mortals, I think, would be in very bad taste. I seem to fit quite well among them."
Zelena studies her for a silent beat before asking, "Why do you say that?"
"Because, I dispatched my father for what I reasoned was my mother's well-being, got myself exiled for taking the trouble to do it, and then, once earthbound, I went and fell in love, and then preceded to marry a man not all that different from my father. If you told me that none of the family had a good laugh at my expense over that one, I'd call you a liar to your face. The only difference was that Ezra Hendershot couldn't legitimately be called evil. For Ezra, being evil would've been too much work. I'm afraid your grandfather revealed himself to be self-serving with a deplorable lack of integrity. The former I can forgive. The latter, not so much."
Zelena's squints curiously. "Then why did you marry him?"
Aradia eyes Eliana for a moment before answering. Deciding the teen is old enough for the truth, she admits candidly, "For the sex."
She smiles and reaches to her left to pat her sputtering great-granddaughter on the back when the girl nearly chokes on a piece of biscotti in response.
"Once I wised up and left him, I had to make it a point to avoid him. Even years later, every time our paths crossed we wound up in bed together." Aradia shrugs. Some men have it. Some don't. Even at 84, that man could still ignite a fire in my loins."
Eliana searches Aradia's face and then scowls. "I can't tell if you loved him or if you hated him."
"Both. There were times he made me so happy it was disgusting, but he was a charlatan, a scoundrel. He'd sell his own mother if the price was right. His loyalty always went to the highest bidder. That's what I couldn't live with. We'd get together, spend a few glorious days in bed, life was always good until we started talking. As long as he didn't talk, I could tolerate him. Unfortunately, the man loved to talk. Once he started, I'd toss him out with yesterday's garbage, and swear never to let him cross my threshold again, time would go by, he'd show up, flash that smile that always did me in, and we'd sizzle… hot enough to blister the paint on the bedroom walls. Too little too late, I realized that our intermittent fondness for one another was not good for our son. Jonathan idolized his father and the boy was hell-bent to be like him in every way."
Picking up on verbiage Zelena pushes her coffee aside. "Past tense? He's gone then?"
Aradia nods, a solemn and slightly misty light glowing in the depths of her eyes. "That he is. One way or another. Although, if you're asking if he's gone in the corporeal sense, even I can't say for sure. No one has seen him for years. If he is still among the living, your father is hidden so well that even I can't find him."
Zelena raises an eyebrow. "But you said he was non-magical."
Aradia nods. "Perhaps it was the cosmos' way of keeping things in balance. If your father had access to even a fraction of the power that flows through the family bloodline, I'm sorry to say no good would come of it. No good at all."
"There are those who do no good, and they still have power."
"Yes, and even without enough good to turn away from the darkness within, those people still have limits; limits they impose on themselves for whatever reasons. As his mother, it pains me to admit this. It pains me more than I can say, but I don't believe my son is capable of imposing limits on himself."
"If even you can't find him, then he has to be somehow cloaked."
"I agree. My heart argues that if he really were dead, no spell would be strong enough to continue to hide him from me. I'd know, but perhaps that's only a mother's wish."
Eliana squints. "Then, he has to be alive. Doesn't he? Who could be powerful enough to hide him that well."
Aradia pats the back of her hand. "There are a select few."
"Who could hide him even from you?"
"I'm afraid so, dear. Either he met his end, or he's very well hidden, either by his own choice or someone else's. I cannot say which."
All three of them turn expectantly in response to a knock at the door and Zelena is the first to speak. "Yes?"
The door opens only a few inches and Norah pokes her head in when a slight smile. "Hi, Aunt Zelena. Can I steal Eliana away for a bit?"
A quiet look goes around the table before Zelena shrugs. "That's up to Eliana."
Norah's cousin half-rises from her seat before pausing with a moment's indecision. She looks to Aradia. "You're not leaving any time soon are you?"
"That's doubtful. I'll be traveling with the group at least until your friend is born, probably a few days after."
"So, we'll have more time to talk?"
Aradia nods. "Go have some fun."
"Okay, thanks. Bye, Mom! If you need me…" Eliana shrugs. "I'll know." Moving quickly, she drains a teacup, scowls in response to the bitter taste, and helps herself to a couple of linen napkins and a dessert plate piled with a few biscotti for the road. Then, she turns, and the two girls disappear from the room just as quickly as Norah appeared.
Aradia chuckles. "Such energy."
Zelena nods. "If I need her… She'll know?"
"By the power of omnipotence. Apparently, she's already learned how to handle hers."
"I can't do that… Or can I?"
"I'm not sure. It's likely that you can't do it because you didn't know you had the option, at least not until very recently. It takes time to learn how to access it. Once you do, it'll take more time to learn how to filter out all the extraneous stuff, which is something most of us find considerably more difficult than learning how to access it in the first place. You must learn to be selective about what you tune into otherwise the constant presence of everyone and everything will drive you mad."
"Please, tell me you don't mean that literally."
"I'm afraid I do."
"Oh, joy!"
Eliana opens an exterior door and pokes her head out surveying her immediate surroundings before announcing, "Good, there's no one out here except for a gorgeous black cat. C'mon."
Norah steps out onto the wide second-floor balcony and walks straight to the stone railing. She looks it over carefully checking for signs of obvious structural damage and then when she sees no cause for alarm, she gives it a good kick, testing its fortitude. Satisfied that it won't crumble beneath her weight, she perches there with her right knee drawn up under her chin, and her left foot dangling 6 inches off the balcony floor. She settles in and rests her back against one of the support columns. From there, she takes in the view for herself before turning her attention to the feline Eliana mentioned. "Hello, cat."
The cat walks to the railing and jumps up effortlessly, settling herself a few inches away from Norah and studying the brunette with the curiosity of one who knows things.
Eliana approaches the railing long enough to hand her a linen napkin the color of dark chocolate along with two of the treats she brought along for them to share, then she quickly backs away.
"I wish you wouldn't do that?"
Already knowing the answer to her question, Norah shrugs innocently. "Do what?"
Eliana rolls her eyes. "You'll know what. At least back home you have magic."
"What does that have to do with anything here?"
Eliana helps herself to one of the cushioned benches against the wall of the house. "If we were back home and you fell off that thing you could at least transport yourself safely to the ground. Norah, you can't do that here. You don't have any magic, remember?"
Norah shrugs. "First of all, I've never fallen off a porch railing, not once in my life, thank you very much. Second, this thing is 2 ½ feet wide. It's not like I'm perched somewhere standing on tiptoe with no room to breathe. There are several inches on either side of me." She gestures as she talks. "It's nice and sturdy, I made sure."
Eliana breathes deeply. "This is not a porch. It's a balcony!"
"Same thing. It's a place to sit outside a house."
"It is not the same thing! Your back porch is not 30 feet off the ground."
Norah peers over the edge and then smiles like the Cheshire cat in Wonderland which only irritates her cousin all the more, especially when she says, "That's not 30 feet. It's at least 40."
"Oh good! Then you'll shatter into even more pieces when you hit the ground."
"Bodies do not shatter. Bodies hit the ground from this height with a very finite thud. Glass shatters. Do I look like I'm made of glass?"
"No, smart ass, you don't. But you don't look invincible either!"
"What are you complaining about? You're over there safe and sound. Why are you scared? Even if you were over here with me, you do have magic. You have nothing to worry about."
"Okay, fine, be stupid, risk your life."
"The point I'm trying to make is, you're the only one who thinks it's a risk. I'm not going to fall."
"What if you're wrong? What if you do fall?"
"Then I give you permission to boycott my funeral. Your final 'I told you so."
"Oh good, that makes me feel so much better."
Norah grins. "You're welcome!"
"Shut it, Norah."
Shrugging, Norah breaks the end off a piece of biscotti and feeds it to the cat, who sniffs carefully before choosing to accept."
"The cat doesn't have a name?"
"Her name's Cleo."
"But you said 'hello cat' like either that was her name or like you didn't know her name."
"Her name is Cleo, but Lord Eldebury, that's who lives here, he's a bit mental. Most of the time he calls her 'cat' as if that were her name. Maybe because sometimes he forgets her name… I'm just guessing. He's much better than when we first got here, but he's not always lucid. Seems like I picked up the habit, but Cleo doesn't seem to mind. I like the marquis though. He's funny. Sometimes he calls Mom 'little princess' or 'little Regina' because that's the way he remembers her from way back when I guess."
Eliana snorts softly. "Oh, Aunt Regina hates that."
Norah nods. "She hasn't said so, but I definitely get that feeling. So… You met Aradia."
"Yeah, we had tea. Well, I had tea. They had coffee with a little something extra in it."
"You hate tea."
"It seemed appropriate to go along with them."
"See, that's the part I'm no good at. I'm not going to sit there and do something I hate doing just for the sake of propriety."
"You're just stubborn."
"You're oversimplifying it. You're being groomed to rule an empire. It's your empire. Why not make your own rules? Do the job. That's fine. But don't sit there and drink tea that you hate just because it's what every empress before you has done.
"This had nothing to do with being groomed. She's my great-grandmother."
"What's she like?"
"She seems cool. I get the feeling she's a free spirit. She's older than Dad. She has to be."
"Why does that matter?"
"Apparently, she likes sex."
Norah squints. "Don't most adults?"
"Seems like she loved her husband, although I can't really say she liked him. She married him for the sex. She admits it… in those exact words."
"She sounds like a party waiting to happen."
"But she's old."
"So. You and I, we weren't delivered by the stork, you know. We weren't hatched, El."
"I know that. I'd rather not think about it, but I know."
"So, what's the big deal?"
"I told you. She's old. Really old. She was probably around when Uncle Zeus was a boy. You just don't know how strange it is to accidentally walk in on your parents when they are in the middle of it."
"Obviously not, no. Wait? You do? You were only four when Aunt Zelena died."
"I know, but trust me, it's not something you forget. I wasn't even old enough to understand what I saw, but I haven't forgotten."
Norah shrugs again. "Maybe that would make a difference. I don't know. It doesn't bother me."
"There isn't much that does bother you, Norah."
"It's a little strange going clothes shopping with my mother before I've even been born. Good, but strange. And, being here watching all the other people who are literally just standing around waiting for me to be born. Most people cannot claim that they are cognitively aware of their own birth."
"If things go the way you want, you won't be either. You won't remember this."
Norah nods. "And that's weird too, sitting here talking about things we won't remember in a place we've never been before, but if all goes according to plan, we will grow up here or at least have knowledge of this place. Thinking about it makes my head hurt."
"But thinking about my great-grandmother having sex doesn't faze you at all."
"Meh, not really, no." Norah rubs the purring cat's head and munches thoughtfully. "I hope Daddy sticks around. Keeps an eye on this place, maybe even if things don't work out with Mom. It's a pretty piece of land, or at least it would be with the right care."
"Never mind the land. When you came knocking a little while ago, you had that look on your face."
"What look?"
"The same look you had when you were 12 after you started feeling guilty for pushing David Nolan off the docks in Storybrooke. What happened? What did you do? Who did you tell off this time? Somebody's not walking around soaking wet, are they?"
"He deserved it. He said something ugly about Mom."
"I remember. I also remember you feeling guilty about it later, even though he deserved it."
"It wasn't a very nice thing for me to do. I lost my temper. I shouldn't have. You get mad, you lose half your intelligence. I shouldn't let people control me that way."
"So, what'd you do this time?"
"Basically, I called King John a lousy ruler… To his face." Norah cringes.
"Of course, you did." Eliana snickers quietly.
Norah wrinkles her nose. It's not funny, El."
Eliana shrugs, "It's a little funny."
Norah shakes her head woefully, "I also called him a toad."
"You did not!"
"I did. But in less than 10 minutes time he insulted half the people in my family. He was about to insult Daddy."
"Oh well then, the gloves come off. I know, my dad is no angel..."
The two girls look at each other and crow in harmony. "But, damn it, he's my dad. Back off!"
Hours after sunset Robin collapses into bed beside his sleeping wife. Tugging the blankets over himself, he turns onto his side and softly touches her belly. When he feels their daughter's immediate response, he quickly withdrawals in an effort not to disturb Regina's slumber, but she murmurs softly.
"I'm sorry. Go back to sleep, love."
She hums sleepily. "What time is it."
"Late, nearly midnight. I shouldn't have touched you. Go back to sleep."
"It's good for her to know you're here. You have many more people to see?"
Robin grunts softly in the affirmative. "We can't seem to get an accurate headcount. More people showed up today. Along with most of the ones we didn't see yesterday."
"Did you talk with the Lady Eldebury at all today?"
Robin shakes his head in the darkness, unseen by Regina who hasn't bothered to open her eyes. "But I suppose I should. The old man seems to have figured out who I am… In relation to her, I mean."
"Who told him?"
Robin shrugs, "Not me. Your father maybe?"
Regina's brow furrows. "I don't know, maybe, but I can't think why he would unless he did it just for the sake of being honest. At this stage in the game, doing so seems counterproductive, and that's not like Daddy. Has the marquis' behavior toward you changed?"
Robin squints, "If anything, he's treating me less like a stranger. Earlier today, I thought I saw a brief flicker of resentment in his eyes, but he never acted on it. I think he's more curious than hurt or angry."
"He's had more than a few years to get used to the idea of your existence. Perhaps whatever resentment he feels is aimed more at his wife… as it should be. There's definitely a space between the two of them."
Robin chuckles and kisses his wife's forehead. "I've heard of understatements before, but Regina there's a chasm deep enough to hold all of Tartarus between the two of them. I've been blessed, and cursed, enough to have two wives. The thought of referring to either one of you as a cow…" Robin shakes his head. "I can't even begin to fathom how much loathing a man must feel in order to refer to his wife as if she were livestock. It's beyond sad."
"At least he acknowledges her, even if in a less than appropriate manner. She doesn't refer to him at all. I've yet to hear her even speak his name. That's no way to live. Leopold and I were like that. Existing in the same cold palace, neither one of us paying any mind to the other. The only time I got his attention at all were the times he thought I'd done something inappropriate for a wife. Even then, his solution was to lock me away in a place where he didn't have to look at me, much less deal with me."
"You did give him a pretty bad time."
"I certainly did. But I can't imagine you doing that. You'd fight with me."
"Because I know you're capable of better."
"That's it, in a nutshell. You believe in me. He never did. Though, to be fair, I didn't believe in him either. It's not a good way to live."
"Tomorrow's another day. We'll get to as many as we can."
"You running short on supplies yet?"
"No, we aren't. I'm afraid to express just how angry that makes me. I wish we were too."
"Too?"
Robin nods in the dark. "You sounded hopeful when you asked."
"Not because I don't want you to help these people. Because I feel like the clock is winding down, or maybe it's me that's winding down. I don't want to give birth here, Robin."
Robin half groans and half chuckles. "The plan is to get you home, but if you'll recall mi'lady, I didn't want to come here at all. You insisted. Remember?"
"I know that. I'm not pushing for home. I'll settle for Covarrachia. I mean specifically that I don't want to give birth in this house. There's something very wrong here, Robin. You'll fix it. I know you will. But, I have this feeling… You can't fix it in time for her arrival. Not all of it. I want her as far away from this house as we can possibly get her."
Robin's quiet for a long beat before admitting, "I can't remember the last time I heard fear in your voice."
Regina's so quiet that, for a moment, he thinks she's fallen back to sleep and then he must strain to hear her when she says, "I am scared. Not of dying. I've been to the underworld twice. I know what to expect. I'm scared for her… Our girl. I don't want her born here… Not in this house. I can't explain why."
Robin folds his arms around her. "I'm told it's only natural for women to develop a bad case of nerves in the days immediately prior to birth. You'd be justified even without the shroud of impending death hanging over you."
"That's all you think it is? Just nerves? I'm just being hormonal?"
"I didn't say that, Regina. That's not what I meant at all. I've seen you manage too many wondrous things. You'll manage this too, but if you, of all people, can complain about a bad feeling, I'm inclined to listen. We'll leave just as soon as I figure out what to do with all these people."
Regina yawns. "You need a cabinet."
Robin squints. "How, may I ask, is a little bit of woodwork going to help with this?"
Regina chuckles and swats at him sleepily in the darkness. "Not that kind of cabinet. You need to form a committee, a group or council of your most trusted allies and advisers, people you can rely upon to carry out your plans and wishes. Kings and queens have them; why shouldn't you?"
"I already have one of those."
Regina finally opens her eyes wide with surprise. "You do? You've been even busier than I thought."
"Sure, I do. They call themselves the merry men."
Regina chuckles softly. "Just don't leave Tuck in charge of food distribution, or Will Scarlett in charge of public relations."
Robin laughs. Tuck won't mind you saying that. Will, on the other hand…"
"Yes… He's a bit excitable. Which is precisely why he doesn't need to be left in charge of anything that requires a cool head."
"I wish I could say you're wrong, but if I leave those two in charge, the village will have money, but all of its people will be half-starved and profoundly inebriated."
Regina chuckles softly in agreement. "Alan is honest without being harsh, and he's clever enough not to put his own heightened intellect on display. That makes him good with people. The choices are yours to make, but I'd look closely at him and consider leaving Little John in charge of security. He's big enough, and skilled enough, to be a one-man brute squad but he's not quick-tempered. Maybe ask their advice on who they think would be best suited to work with them. Anyone particularly frugal-minded might be best suited for supply and food distribution."
"That would be Percival. He seems to have a head for knowing when to hold things in reserve as well as when to be generous."
Regina nods and then groans with displeasure. Tossing the blankets aside, she struggles to her feet and makes her way across the room to their private water closet; bumping her swollen belly into furniture more than once along the way in the darkened room that she hasn't had time to become familiar with.
Robin bites his lower lip to keep from chuckling in response to her quiet but hostile grumbling as she goes. Moments later, when she returns, he finds her still grumbling half-coherently and smiles as she gets back into bed and tosses about until she finds the least uncomfortable position, before finally resting her head against his shoulder.
"Shut up, Robin"
Surprised, he objects fervently. "I didn't say a word!"
"You think you have to? I can hear you laying there not laughing."
He lifts his head off the pillow and squints down at the crown of her head in the thin stream of moonlight that seeps through the sheer billowing curtains over the open bedroom window as she swats at his shoulder with yet another objection.
"Stop looking at me that way and be still! Pillows aren't supposed to move on their own."
"The fact that I had the presence of mind not to actually laugh aloud counts for nothing at all, does it?"
"No, it doesn't. Be still!"
"I think you need to go back to sleep."
Regina grimaces. "I might… If you be quiet and still, and if our daughter stops elbowing my bladder."
Robin cranes his neck awkwardly and drops a light soothing kiss on her head before settling in once more.
Regina grumbles irritably one last time in response to his movement before delivering her own brusque kiss to his chest and closing her eyes.
